Bibliotherapy with gifted students

Sunday, October 25, 2009

What is bibliotherapy?Bibliotherapy is the process of having a student read a book to learn about social/emotional issues or developmental needs by identifying with a character from the book. The student reflects on the struggles or problems the character is having and can learn from the characters needs or conflicts. Readers are presented with ways to cope and can better understand themselves through reading. They can learn that there are others who have the same feelings, concerns or problems and that they are not alone. They can connect with the character and gain personal insight into themselves through reading about other gifted people. Students develop a more positive self image and can change attitudes, and values by reading about other gifted people. It promotes mental and emotional health. Adding this to a reading program adds depth to reading and challenges the reader to make complex analyses. They connect to the character and this allows a deeper understanding of the character.

Using Bibliotherapy in a classroom.Students can choose books from a list. These books are to be read and the readers could be given a list of questions to think about while reading the book. After reading the students could have a group discussion based on the questions that they thought about while they were reading. It does not matter that the students read different books. The questions are the same for the students to share their thoughts and feelings on the topic of being gifted. The questions listed below are sample questions from the article by Tamara Fisher.

Who in the book did you identify with and why?

What situations, events, problems did you identify with and why?

Do you agree or disagree with the significant decisions that the gifted character made and why?

How did being gifted impact the characters life? Was the impact positive or negative?

In what ways was the character gifted?

How did you know he or she was gifted?

What do you think are the messages the author is trying to send with this book?

Do you agree or disagree with the authors message?

What was the problem or challenge in the book and how was it solved or overcome?

Books recommended to upper elementary age gifted students for bibliotherapy:

Alvin Webster's Surefire Plan for Success and How it Failed by Sheila Greenwald

Airborne by Kenneth Oppel

Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry

Apollo 13 by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger

Arilla Sun Down by Virginia Hamilton

Artimis Fowl

The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell

Been Clever Forever by Bruce Stone

Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Curtis

Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Letham

Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

Children of the Atom by Wilmar Shiras

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Deliver Us From Normal by Kate Klise

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris

Einstein: A Life in Science by John Gribbin and Michael White

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol

The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt by Patricia MacLachlan

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Forever Changes by Brenden Halpin

Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho by Jon Katz

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson

Good Enough by Paula Yoo

The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling

A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey fro the Inner City to the Ivy League by Ron Suskind

Ida B:... and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors by Susan Casey

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

Leonardo's Notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci (edited by Anna Suh)

Letters From Rapunzel by Sara Lewis Holmes

Libby on Wednesday by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Maizon at Blue Hill by Jacqueline Woodson

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Lee

More than a Test Score: Teens Talk About Being Gifted, Talented and Otherwise Extra-Ordinary by Robert Schultz and James Delisle

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nihm

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stuart

The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley

My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Pride of the Peacock by by Stephanie Tolan

Prince Prigio by Andrew Lang

Rocket Boys (also called October Sky) by Homar Hickam

Saving Lilly by Peg Kehret

The School for Cool by P.G. Kain

Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong

Smart Talk: What Kids Sya About Growing Up Gifted by Robert Schultz

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of William A. Bentley by Duncan Blanchard

Some Day Angeline by Louis Sachar

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Sticks by Joan Bauer

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald

The Teenager's Guide to School Outside the Box by Rebecca Greene

The Triple Chocolate Brownie Genius by Deborah Sherman

The 39 Clues series

The View From Saturday by E.L. Konisburg

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Walt Disney: An American Origional by Bob Thomas

The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplanre by Russell Freedman

More Sources for researching this topic:

Mary Frasier- A leader in the area of bibliotherapy for gifted students. It helps gifted students to better understand themselves. She has been instrumental in using bibliotherapy in the counseling of gifted children.